Film Review: "The Ides of March"

Based on the play "Farragut North" by Beau Willamon, "The Ides of March" is the story of the final days of a Democratic presidential primary. It's a film that is incredibly cynical regarding the political process in America, specifically the campaign process. The entire story is an exercise in dirty politics, without a single moral or upstanding character to be found. It's also an intense and expertly crafted film with a solid directorial outing by George Clooney (who also stars) and a slew of outstanding performances.

The film opens in the final days of the Ohio Democratic presidential primary. George Clooney stars as Governor Mike Morris, an idealistic candidate who has held a commanding lead in the race thus far, but now finds himself in a tight battle in Ohio, and the sense that "as Ohio goes, so goes the nation." Ryan Gosling is Stephen Myers, Morris's assistant campaign manager. He's a veteran of many campaigns, despite being only 30, and in Morris he has finally found a candidate he truly believes in. He and campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are working hard at helping Morris seal the deal in Ohio when Stephen is contacted by Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), the campaign manager for Morris's opponent. Duffy just wants to meet with Stephen and talk, a seemingly innocent enough action that ends up having horrible repercussions for Stephen, Paul, Morris, and many others.

I said in my opening that there are a slew of outstanding performances in this film, and truth be told, there really isn't a bad performance to be found. It starts the top with Gosling. Despite having Clooney in the film, this is Gosling's show, and he owns it. Stephen in the one who is transformed the most by the fallout from his seemingly innocent meeting, and Gosling captures the entire range of his character perfectly. The role of an idealistic politician is one that Clooney was born to play, and he pulls it off smoothly. There's nothing especially standout about his performance, but that's probably because he's played so many smooth talking characters for so long that it just seems effortless. Hoffman and Giamatti are two of the best scenery-chewing actors working today, but they're both so good that they almost always manage to play very intense characters, yet never take them too over the top. That's the case again here, though neither of them has a whole lot of screen time. They only share one scene together, and never speak to each other, but it's obvious from that one scene alone how much Paul and Tom despise each other. The film's other noteworthy performance comes from Evan Rachel Wood as Molly, a teenage intern who has been working on the campaign for just a few months. I think that when she's at her best, Wood is one of the most talented actors of her generation. Her performances in "The Wrestler" and particularly "Thirteen" were revelatory, and while she's not as intense here, she perfectly captures the confident-but-naive girl who quickly gets way in over her head in the dirty political game that plays out over the course of the film.

Clooney's direction is solid; it's no surprise that he is able to bring out such great performances as he is an actor himself. He really knows how to showcase the performances here too, using lots of facial closeups which in a film with so many twists and turns really allows us to see each character's reaction as events play out and the stakes keep getting raised. Gosling and Wood are served particularly well by this, as they are both actors who can say so much with their eyes alone. The script by Clooney, Willamon, and Grant Heslov is great, never diving too deep into political, inside-the-Beltway dialogue. Alexandre Desplat contributes a pulsating, intense score that may well earn him another Oscar nomination (though I'd prefer to see him recognized for his work on "Harry Potter").

To sum up, "The Ides of March" is simply a great film. It's incredibly cynical, and for those already disturbed by the current political process in America, this definitely won't improve your opinions. Walking out of the film at first, I almost felt that it was just too depressing, but as I've been able to step back and think on it I now see what is simply an expertly crafted film that is well worth seeing.

"The Ides of March" is rated R for pervasive language.
Running time: 101 minutes.
Released domestically on October 7, 2011, by Columbia Pictures.
3.5 stars out of 4.